A tribute to and catalogue of the works of Alexander "Hugin" Wieser, founder of ambient black metal band Uruk Hai and many other side-projects, including Hrossharsgrani, Hrefnesholt, Elisabetha, B-Machina, Ceremony of Innocence and more!
Here you will find my thoughts on his work and details on the releases as drawn from items in my personal collection, forming a fuller catalogue of his work than is currently available elsewhere online

Tuesday, 17 January 2012

FACE THE SCIENCE

Band:BONEMACHINE/B-MACHINA with Kenji SiratoriTitle: Face The ScienceFormat: Plain silver CDr disc in a yellow wallet, housed inside a folded card sleeve as illustrated. No details regarding date of release or point of origin.Edition:unknown

The phrase "cheeky bugger" is not one that crops up on Honour and Darkness regularly but allow Nazgul to make an exception, as once again we explore the twilight world of Kenji Siratori's bootlegging activities.

For those unfamiliar with the events thus far, a short recap. There have been some official collaborations between Hugin's Bonemachine project and Kenji Siratori, notably "Acidhumanix" and "Crypt Child", whilst more recently B-Machina and Kenji got together for the "DNA". That seemed to be the time (2007) that the problems started, as Kenji's own label - Hypermodern - released a CDr bootleg version of the "DNA" tape without Hugin's knowledge.

Skip on a year or two and a slew of bootlegs of a different sort appeared, again through Hypermodern. These took the Bo-Machina name and purported to be collaborations once again, each coming in an A4-size package and in an edition of 30 copies apiece. Nazgul collected a few of these and posted on the subject in Blog on 31 August 2009. One of the major issues here was that none of Hugin's music actually ended up on any of these later releases, and the B-Machina name was being used entirely improperly. A number of other releases in similar format featuring apparent work with other bands in the industrial ambient genre also appeared at the same time, with the presumption being that these too demonstrated shameless charlatanism.

And so back to where we began, with the "Face The Science" release. Although there are no details about label or source it seems highly likely to be another Hypermodern release, or one closely linked to them: one suggestion for this is because the track listing is exactly the same as that used on the CDr bootleg of "DNA" even down to the running order, which, as the sharp-eyed amongst you may have spotted, is not as advertised on the rear of the inlay but as detailed under Nazgul's 'Track Listing' information.

As second giveaway comes from consulting with Hugin about the release. When Nazgul found a copy online and purchased it, it seemed to be a unlikely happenstance that Hugin had never mentioned it before. Sure enough, much righteous indignation was expressed in deepest Austria when a scan of the cover was emailed over to WAR, as it turns out that the artwork was actually designed by Hugin and sent to Kenji some years back for a proposed joint release that never happened!

Rather than falsely credit other music to B-Machina this time around, Kenji/Hypermodern have taken the B-Machina tracks from "DNA" and added an old Bonemachine cover to them, adding a new title and 'hey presto' - a new release! Cheeky bugger....

So there we have it - a 'new' Bonemachine release that turns out not to be so new after all, and another chapter in the Japanese bootleg saga recorded for posterity.

To quote from the original review of the "DNA" tape on 27 June 2009, Nazgul found an apt description online of the actual music that is worth repeating:

"The image DNA places in my mind’s eye is of warped transmissions from a dying planet. Indiscernible voices apathetically preach of the end of times as the world around them slowly fails and fades into another chapter of infinite history. The first track, Anti Vital, while in the same theme as the rest of the album, stands very much alone. It’s theme is very militant and oppressive, but is comprised of off-kilter rhythmic samples. This track is a strange offset to the rest of this release, but is very likable and I will return to it often.

As a whole, this release rides the line between a passive sense of loss and hopelessness, a collection of uncaring eulogies for the dead and dying. Every track is filled with ongoing drones and voice samples. I am somewhat familiar with the works of both B-Machina and Kenji Siratori. I could not honestly say I can tell which artist performed which role on this release. This is a very strong example of the abilities of each artist, and speaks well for the collaborative effort between the artists and labels."

Chances are you'll never see a copy of this for sale anyway unless you frequent the same strange parts of the internet that Nazgul occasionally visits, but if you do see this CDr anywhere the advice would be to boycott it and buy instead the official SkullFuckingMetal tape pressing from our old friend Keegan instead and benefit from the additional track 'Corpse City II' as well.

Rather than "Face The Science", one feels all of this underhand skulduggery is going to lead to someone facing the music in a more literal sense someday soon...